“The Tribal Chief.” “The Big Dog.” “The Head of the Table.” Since he joined the company’s main roster in 2012 as a member of The Shield, former WWE Champion Roman Reigns has gone by all of these identities. Reigns, whose real name is Joe A’noai, has been officially with WWE for 15 years as of this writing. After years of playing football, he made his debut in the company’s Florida Championship Wrestling developmental division in 2010. He did, however, make his debut under a different name, so he wasn’t quite Roman Reigns yet.
In a battle royal that reads like a whos’ who of current and former WWE Superstars, Roman Leakee made his FCW debut on August 19, 2010. Several of the competitors have had great success in their respective careers. Along with celebrities like Epico, Titus O’Neil, Big E (then Big E Langston), and even his cousin and current WWE World Heavyweight Champion Jey Uso, there were also celebrities like Xavier Woods, who had previously worked in the independent scene, and Kaval, who many people know better as Low Ki.
While Roman stayed in developmental to hone his abilities, Alex Riley, who would eventually make it onto WWE’s main roster a few months later, would win the match. But by the end of the year, Roman Leakee just became Leakee because of WWE’s penchant for slicing people’s names in half at the time. Since his first match at an NXT live event in August 2012 against CJ Parker, now better known as Juice Robinson in AEW, was under the Leakee name, Leakee would continue to use the future “Tribal Chief” name exclusively until 2012, even after FCW changed into what would eventually become “WWE NXT.”
Following his first match as a member of “NXT,” Leakee would immediately regain his first name. However, a few weeks later, the Leakee name would vanish as Roman Reigns was born. He would then begin to appear on the new “WWE NXT” TV show in addition to live events with the WWE main roster. In 2017, the future WWE Champion said on an edition of “Talk is Jericho” that he had a conversation with a future WWE commentator that led him to choose the surname Roman Reigns, even though he knew he liked the name Roman.
My desire for Roman was clear. I enjoyed Roman. “No, you need a last name,” they said when I asked for Roman alone. Furthermore, another man named Calvin Raines is in FCW. He spelled it as a “raindrop” or “rain.” And they let him go, I think. I’m sorry, brother. He’s a good brother and a wonderful man overall. Sorry.They said, “Okay, give me four or five different names,” and I thought, “Roman Raines sounds good.” Then they said, “Okay, we’ll go with like.” Corey Graves was down in FCW and still working when I was going through it. He’s actually one of my good pals, and our families are like very good friends. “Hey, I heard you say ‘Roman Raines,'” he said to me. What if it were spelled “reigns,” as in “a king reigns”? I thought, ‘Whoa, I like that.’ There you have it. And a complete heel name as well!”
He would go on to set records with the WWE Universal Championship and the WWE Championship as a result of that choice. He would even go on to headline WrestleMania 10 times. After all, Leakee doesn’t immediately catch people’s attention like Roman Reigns does when he appears on the main stage of WWE’s biggest event of the year.
